U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles: Mike Johnson Must Commit to Fiscal Responsibility in Order to Be Reelected Speaker of the House

Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) must lay out and commit to a plan for how he plans to be fiscally responsible in the speakership role if he wants to be reelected.

After the 119th U.S. Congress is sworn in this week, members’ first order of business on Friday is to elect a speaker.

Johnson, who was elected Speaker of the House in October 2023 after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted, is looking to hold onto the role despite a select few Republican members not convinced with his leadership.

Ogles said that while Johnson is a “friend” of his, the speaker has “work to do” leading up to Friday’s vote to lay out and commit to a fiscally responsible plan for how he plans to run the House moving forward under the incoming Trump-Vance administration.

“Mike is a friend of mine. We text regularly. We talk regularly. But that being said, he has a job to do, and I expect him to do that job well…I’m a fiscal hawk. We’ve got to get our fiscal house in order. So with that, I need to see a plan. Mike is a good man. He’s a good, solid Christian man. I just need him to give me his word that he’s going to execute this plan that he’s laying out, and that’s what we’re working on,” Ogles said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

Ogles said he specifically wants to see Johnson commit to finding ways to cut government spending “instead of borrowing more money from China going further in debt.”

“I think for me, the biggest issue is when you look at the spending bills over this last year since Mike Johnson has been speaker, they’ve passed with more Democrat votes than Republican votes. Why? Because they’re full of spending nonsense. We’re sending money to Ukraine, yet we’re not cutting anything out of the budget, and before you know it, we’re going to have $37 trillion in debt. We’ve got to start cutting the budget somewhere,” Ogles explained.

“[Johnson must] lay out a plan for us and give us his word that if we do a supplemental to anything, I don’t care what it’s for, whether it’s disaster or whatever it is, we’ve got to find the money somewhere else in the budget and cut because we know there’s waste. We know there’s fraud. We know there’s plenty of money to be cut. So let’s start moving those pennies around or hundreds of millions of dollars around instead of borrowing more money from China going further in debt. And quite frankly, we’re at the tipping point where this is no longer just a fiscal issue. This is a national security issue,” Ogles added.

Given Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House, Ogles said Johnson can only afford to lose any more votes, especially since one Republican member, Kentucky U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) has made clear he will not be voting for Johnson’s reelection bid.

“The speaker can only afford to lose one vote, and Thomas Massey is a hard no. I don’t think he’s going to move off of that. So he can’t afford to lose anyone else,” Ogles explained.

To Johnson’s credit, Ogles said the speaker has been “working the phone” this week despite being out of town with his family to convince Republicans that he should remain in the role.

“He’s dedicated to the cause…Mike’s working hard…It’s going to be a long couple of days, but we’re going to get it done, and ultimately, we’re going to certify this election because in less than three weeks, Donald Trump will be president of the United States again, and there is a bright future ahead of us. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not the train, it’s sunshine, and it’s Donald Trump,” Ogles said.

Watch the full interview:

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

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